For months 888poker has been qualifying players for the 2019 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. On Monday, July 8 the “888poker Squad” returned to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino for Day 3 action.
At the start, 28 of the original 85 888poker qualifiers were still in action.
Here’s a look at how they did.
They’re in the Money
It was a big day at in the 2019 WSOP Main Event as 1,793 out of 8,569 players returned to action. By the end of the night, 1,286 remained, all of who were in the money. Of those, 17 were 888poker qualifiers, meaning 20 per cent of the 888poker Squad cashed for a minimum of $15,000 while they have their eyes on the $10,000,000 first-place prize.
The 888poker Squad member best positioned to make a run at it, and the only one to bag up over seven figures, is Jason James. Day 3 proved to be a big day as he worked his stack up from 287,700 to 1,006,000, which puts him 72nd in chips in the remaining field.
Another player to bag was 35-year-old Rob McAdam, who lives in Chester, UK with his partner, Lisa. It’s there he runs a sales team for a national holiday lettings company. McAdam started playing poker about 16 years ago after his brother, Alun, read an article about students playing poker online.
"He thought it would be a good idea for me as I had always been good with numbers,” McAdam explained. “The first time I ever played live was in Manchester. I was just 18 years old and very green when it came to the game. But I ended up splitting the tournament four ways and pocketing £1,000. When I got home in the early hours of the morning, I went into my brother, who was still asleep and nudged him on his forehead with the wad of cash. He woke up pretty quickly and wanted to hear all about it. The win really spurred me on. I had a few nice wins, including being part of an online bad beat jackpot where I collected £12,500. I was just 23 and decided to quit my temporary job as a mortgage broker to concentrate more seriously on poker.”
That same year Rob won his first package to the WSOP Main Event, taking down the satellite on his brother's birthday.
"It was obvious who was going with me on the trip,” he said. “We had an amazing time. I made Day 3 of the competition but finished about 80 players off the money. I was disappointed, but it was a phenomenal experience when you consider there were more than 6,000 players from all over the world taking part.”
In 2014, Rob, who is a massive Liverpool fan, had the biggest single win of his poker career bagging £34,000 when he won a tournament in Southend. He decided to use part of his winnings to have another crack at the WSOP Main Event.
"Unfortunately, it wasn't my time again - but I wouldn't have missed it for the world," he added, also revealing that last year he won his way to the Main Event via 888poker, as well. "I never really got going and only made it half-way through on the opening day - but that's poker."
The fourth time is the charm, as right now, McAdam is guaranteed to make money.
Top 10 Day 3 888poker Squad Chip Counts
1st – Jason James … 1,006,000
2nd – Norberto Andres Korn … 850,000
3rd – Mikhail Sokolovskiy … 755,000
4th – Mihai Manole … 408,000
5th – Cornelis De Moree … 367,000
6th – Thomas Muehloecker … 367,000
7th – Dean Morrone … 365,000
8th – Rob McAdam … 221,000
9th – Sam Greenwood … 220,000
10th – Florin Ionut Pandilica … 166,000
Others advancing are Charlie Combes (161,000), Diego Ventura (155,000), Kyriakos Papadopoulos (134,000), Timothy Cavallin (122,000) David Hu (117,000), Patrice Brandt (68,000), Bill White (60,000).
Dzivielevski Clashes with a Main Event Champion
Unfortunately, 11 members of the 888poker Squad saw their runs into the 2019 WSOP Main Event come to an end - short of the money on Day 3. They included Pascal Hartmann, Alejandro Sanchez, Richard Kellett, Tom Hall, Carl Melker Larsson, William Chattaway, Atish Mistry, Angel Maria Perez, Christopher Bruell, and Vitor Dzivielevski.
For Dzivielevski, he had a confrontation with 1993 WSOP Main Event champ Jim Bechtel, who earlier this summer won his second gold bracelet after a 26-year dry spell. It happened in Level 13 (2,000/4,000/4,000) when Dzivielevski was down to under 100,000 in chips.
He got those all-in preflop holding the K♥Q♦ and was dominating the K♣J♣ of Bechtel. Dzivielevski was primed to double, but sadly the board ran out 2♥10♣2♦10♠A♣ to put two pair with an ace kicker on the pot, which meant it was a chopped pot.
Dzivielevski would fail to survive the flight, just like 30-year-old full-time poker player Richard Kellett, who hails from Chorley, UK. Kellett. He has an economics degree from Leeds University and has been playing both live and online since he discovered the game on TV, 12 years ago.
His biggest poker win came online in 2009 when he won $96,000, while his most significant live cash was for £68,000 in Nottingham in 2014. Kellett played chess for England “Under 8s-Under 12s” and has been to Vegas several times.
Unfortunately, the latest trip didn’t result in a payday as his run came to an end on Day 3 of the 2019 WSOP Main Event.
888poker will be bringing you daily 2019 WSOP Main Event updates on our qualifiers. Check back to see who goes deep and who ultimately finishes as the 888poker Squad last player standing.
